News

2008-10-06 18:56:31

Oiled birds

Today at BDMLR HQ we received a call from Ann Westwood. She was at a Vets practice in Redcar and was in need of our help. She had picked up 4 oiled birds off the beach and had taken them in to her local Vets for treatment. The Vets told her that they would not be able to treat the birds only put them to sleep. Trevor did a quick google search and found a charity called Yorkshire Swan Rescue, he gave them a call and by chance Dan was heading in the direction of Redcar to pick up a Swan and was happy to collect the birds from Ann's home.

Dan called back the next day to advise that he had collected the birds which turned out to be 3 Guillemots and a Puffin, and that they were all doing really well. It was mainly their legs, feet and bottoms that had been covered in oil. We later heard from Richard Ilderton the area Coordinator that over the weekend several oiled birds had been picked up along the 70 mile stretch of coast. Richard had contacted the local Coastguard and they advised that there had been no reports of any oil spills in the area.